Local Boston Pops oboist Frank Charnley to retire on July 4

Chris Bergeron

Monday

Jun 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMJun 29, 2009 at 3:03 AM

For the last time, Frank Charnley will play his handcrafted oboe to signal the audience at the Boston Pops and the millions watching that booming cannons and July Fourth fireworks are just a few beats away.

For the last time, Frank Charnley will play his handcrafted oboe to signal the audience at the Boston Pops and the millions watching that booming cannons and July Fourth fireworks are just a few beats away.

Ba ba ba ba BOM BOM ba! Ba ba ba ba BOM BOM ba!

After his performance in the climactic "1812 Overture" and the grand finale of the "Star Spangled Banner," the Framingham native will bid goodbye to 40 years with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and 25 years with the BSO's Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

"Walking off that stage will be emotional for me," said Charnley, who lives in Medfield. "I've had the honor and distinction of performing with musicians I respected. I had the best ride."

Charnley's musical odyssey began as a 6-year-old growing up in Framingham. His parents started him with piano lessons. He later learned to play saxophone and clarinet.

His father, Frank Charnley, was a successful builder and his mother, the late Rosalie Charnley, opened and ran a florist shop on Summer Street.

Charnley's love affair with the oboe began as a high school junior in 1965, when he first heard Sonny and Cher sing "I Got You Babe."

"There were just two repeating oboe notes that affected the song's timbre and something clicked. I had to know what produced that sound," he recalled. "I knew I was starting late. But I knew it was my future."

Whatever it was, those oboe notes struck a chord in Charnley that sent him off to the New England Conservatory of Music, four decades with the BSO and Pops under famous conductors Arthur Fiedler, John Williams and Keith Lockhart.

After graduating from Framingham North High School in 1966, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music. While still at the conservatory, he played with the BSO and in 1979 accepted Fiedler's offer to play with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

At the Pops, Charnley plays first oboe and sits next to the flute section.

He recalled the "great artists" he has performed with, including Henry Mancini, Seiji Ozawa, Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand, Joel Grey and others.

Charnley called Williams, Pops conductor from 1980 to 1995, a dear friend and "extremely gifted composer for the oboe who brought out the most in me."

"With John, what you see is what you get," he said. "As a man, he's very straightforward. As an artist, he's a genius."

Picking up his $8,000 French-made oboe, Charnley said, "It produces the sound of a solo instrument.

"Its role is one of the instruments playing solo lines in most classical compositions. In America, the oboe has a darker, moodier sound than in France," he said.

Charnley described the oboe as a double-reed instrument in the woodwind family, descended from the simpler recorder. Its name comes from the French word "hautbois" which means "high," "loud" and "wood."

Charnley said the oboe enhances the composition's "coloration" and he strives to bring something new to each performance.

"If you're playing the same sound for more than one second, you're boring to the public," he said. "Every single performance, I try to create something new."

In between performances, Charnley shapes his oboe's sound, using a variety of special knives to scrape cane reeds imported from southern France to a width of 61 thousands of an inch. He said each finished reed can be played for just three to four hours. "Sax players can buy their reeds by the box. What wimps," he said, smiling.

In his living room, Charnley still plays the Baldwin grand piano his mother bought him. Playing it is fundamentally different from the oboe.

"There's no conductor. When you play piano, you're the designer of how it sounds. With the oboe, by definition, you're part of a larger effort," he said.

Now 61, Charnley is stepping down from the BSO and Pops to devote more time to the Boston Ballet Orchestra, which plays more classical music. He'll also spend more time with his elderly father and family. He plans to continue teaching oboe at Concord-Carlisle High School.

A self-described "car nut," he favors BMWs and has a vanity license plate that reads "OBOIST."

Charnley is married to Ingrid Mattson-Charnley, a clinical psychologist with her own practice. They have two daughters, Caitlin, a talented violinist who works in the BSO music library, and Rachel, an administrative assistant to Gov. Deval Patrick.

Another family member, Chelsea, a 10-year-old golden retriever "sings duets" along with Charnley when he practices his oboe at home.

Approaching his final Pops concert, Charnley said he's proud but nervous Lockhart will ask him to stand at the concert's end to be recognized by the crowd and television audience for years of musical excellence.

"It's a distinction that's never happened before. It's an acknowledgement of service," he said. "I'm proud my wife and daughters will be there to see it."

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